


The New Year is for Coming Home

by shesnotme681



Category: Coronation Street
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 13:52:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17265359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shesnotme681/pseuds/shesnotme681
Summary: Short one-shot of the couple post NYE.





	The New Year is for Coming Home

**“C** ome home.”

Kate and Rana had been hovering in each other’s space, both reluctant to break the moment after their lips had broken apart, their foreheads touching, Kate’s hands still holding Rana’s face, Rana still pulling Kate ever closer. When Rana broke the moment, broke the silence, Kate tilted her head back to get a look at her, scanning Rana’s lidded, drunken eyes.

“Come home,” Rana said again, this time it came out more as a plea, barely held back sobs softening the edges of her words.

“D’you mean it?” asked Kate, betraying a hint of insecurity in her quavering tone as she leant her head down to lock eyes with Rana. She needed to know. She needed to feel this wasn’t just the wine talking. That it was Rana. The woman she wanted to marry. The woman she hoped against all hope still wanted to marry her.

Rana nodded her head vigorously, meeting Kate’s gaze through her eyelashes as a pair of tears rolled down her cheeks that Kate quickly wiped away before nodding once in acceptance and taking Rana’s hand in hers, leading them home.

 **O** nce back at the flat, Kate closed the door behind them, and started to talk before fully turning around. “Rana, I’m… I’m so sor—”

When Kate looked up she realized that Rana was nowhere to be found. Making her way to their bedroom, she found her splayed out across the bed with neither her jacket nor boots removed. Kate couldn’t help but smile at the sight in front of her before taking the steps to rectify it, eventually getting the covers over her.

All Kate wanted to do was join Rana, slip in beside her on the open side of the bed, the right side of the bed, her side. But she wasn’t sure if that’s what a sober Rana would want. She wasn’t sure if she deserved that privilege again just yet. So instead, Kate rummaged around to find a pair of her pajamas she’d not packed for her stay in The Rovers, a pair of pajamas she couldn’t help but notice seemed curiously worn in the recent past, and settled herself on the couch.

 **“W** hat are you doing here?”

Kate bolted upright on the couch, peering into the annoyed face of one Rana Habeeb. “I… I, erm… Last night…”

“Yeah, I remember. Why are you out here?”

“Well… Well, I thought… I’m sorry. I’ll… I’ll go. Let me just…”

“I don’t want you to _go_ , Kate,” said Rana, slumping on the door frame between the bedroom and living room.

“Then what…?“

“Did you not mean what you said last night?”

Kate looked up at Rana with a look of utter confusion. What had she said that Rana thought she may not have meant? There were so many possibilities. Did she mean that she didn’t care about this random Tiff girl? No, she hadn’t mean that in the slightest. Had Rana overheard her tell Imogen she’d no feelings for her? She certainly hadn’t meant that. Perhaps the only thing she had meant that night was telling Rana that she loved her.

“I meant that I love you, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Rana’s pinched brows relaxed for the first time since she’d woken up to find Kate not beside her as she’d expected, but curled up uncomfortably on the couch. In fact, she was helpless against the shy smile that split across her face that she tried to control by biting her lower lip as she lifted her arm up, inviting Kate to come with her. Kate looked at Rana with a look of utter disbelief before scrambling out of the nest she made for herself on the couch, only tripping over the blankets in the process.

“I don’t deserve you,” Kate said, as she took Rana’s outstretched hand. Rana just grunted before falling back into bed and turning onto her side. When Kate didn’t immediately move to spoon her, Rana cleared her throat.

“Still drunk, bound to be hungover over here. Where’s the cuddle?”

Kate chuckled before quickly obliging. “Right here, love.” Rana murmured her contentment before slipping back off to sleep.

 **D** awn had come and gone on New Year’s Day and Kate still held Rana close in her arms. While Rana was still sound asleep, Kate was wide awake, content to spend her morning home, where her heart would always be. But as Rana began to stir, Kate decided to reluctantly extract herself from the warm bed to retrieve provisions to make Rana’s morning a less painful one.

Frying up bacon, champagne ready for some hair of the dog mimosas on the counter, Kate was lazily humming a tune when she heard shuffling behind her.

“What are you doing?” asked Rana, an unreadable expression on her face.

Kate, obviously puzzled, quirked an eyebrow, holding the spatula in her right hand aimed at the pan on the stove. “Erm, breakfast?”

Rana smiled. “Good. I’m dying for some grease, me.”

“Sit yourself down then,” said Kate, relaxing her shoulders in relief once again that Rana had had enough faculties about her the previous night to remember the important bits. That they loved each other, namely. And that they were willing to get through all of things that were coming between them together.

“Rana,” said Kate, her own plate of eggs, bacon, and toast barely touched. “I really am sorry. For how I’ve been…”

“Kate, really, you needn’t… “

“No, please, just let me... “ said Kate, shaking her head. Rana reached out and grabbed Kate’s hand that was clenching her knee and nodded reassuringly.

“There’s no excuse for some of the things I’ve done recently. I know that. But, sometimes, there are reasons for things, yeah? Even if… even if they’re not so valid. And the reason wasn’t that I didn’t love you. Or… or that I didn’t care about you or us. I’ve loved you, I love you so much, Rana. You and starting a family with you just felt like an answer to missing Aidan. And I know that’s unfair. I knew it was, a part of me anyway. But I just… I just couldn’t… I couldn’t let it go… I know that’s not going to fix anything. And I know how I went about trying to make that happen was… I don’t even know what it was… It was so many things. Wrong. A betrayal. Of you. Of us. Of me, really. I just. I’m sorry. And I can’t say I’m all better now. I’ve got a lot to deal with. With how Aidan… How that’s affected me. Is affecting me. But I see it now. And I want to get through it. With you. If… if you…

“Of course, babe,” interrupted Rana, squeezing Kate's hand with one of hers while using her other to tilt Kate's head up to make sure she knew she heard her. “We’ve both been through a lot this year. Too much by half, really. You _will_ get through it. We’ll get through it _together_. Like always, yeah?”

“Yeah,” said Kate, smiling and leaning in to kiss Rana. Pulling away to look at her, makeup still smudged under her eyes, her hair still in the ponytail from last night, but tousled from sleep, her t-shirt stretched at the neck and exposing her shoulder, Kate smiled wider. “I’m just so happy to be home."


End file.
